The Five Spot: What To Put In Your Brain This Week

By Douglas Wolk

June 1, 2015

Cartoonists on a bender, Melissa McCarthy going all James Bond, and the creators of The Matrix and Babylon 5 collaborating on a new sci-fi TV show: as the days get hotter and longer, it’s a good week to stay cool with some media.

MAJOR LAZER: *PEACE IS THE MISSION*
The guy on the record covers may have his own G.I. Joe-style animated series, but Major Lazer isn’t actually a person: it’s producer Diplo’s dancehall-inspired collaboration with whoever he can yank into the studio. The new album’s first single, “Lean On,” was a huge hit basically everywhere except the U.S., and everyone from Ellie Goulding to Pusha T turns up on the record. (June 1)

THE WIRE: THE COMPLETE SERIES BLURAY
Series creator David Simon has admitted some reservations about the HD remastering and reformatting of this new edition. But The Wire really is as great as its hype — a cop show that gradually becomes an unforgettable five-year-long portrait of a huge, broken system — and its look and pacing owed more to movies than any other TV show of its era anyway. (June 2)

AIRBOY #1
Nobody was baying for a revival of the ‘40s public-domain superhero Airboy — including this series’ creators James Robinson (best known for rebooting another Golden Age hero, Starman) and Greg Hinkle. Fortunately, this incarnation of Airboy is something totally different: the scabrous, hilarious, hope-to-God-it’s-fictional memoir of Robinson and Hinkle’s coke-fueled attempt to cough some life into a dorky old franchise. (June 3)

SENSE8
Separately, the Wachowskis (Jupiter Ascending) and J. Michael Straczynski have been producing, let’s say, uneven work over the past decade or so, but this collaboration sounds promising: a sci-fi series about eight people who become psychically linked by a mysterious force. The cast includes Tuppence Middleton, Brian J. Smith and Bae Doona; Netflix will be releasing the first season’s 12 episodes simultaneously. (June 5)

SPY
The Bridesmaids/The Heat team of writer-director Paul Feig and star Melissa McCarthy have reunited for this action-comedy about a C.I.A. paper-pusher who ends up going deep undercover in Eastern Europe. Early reviews suggest that it’s amazingly charming, and that Jason Statham pulls off an expert self-parody. Also, 50 Cent appears as… 50 Cent. (June 5)